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PI OriginalMatthew BlakeThursday May 10th, 2012, 4:47pm

Occupy Chicago Outlines NATO Protests (VIDEO)

Occupy Chicago says thousands of protesters will go to Chicago next week
before the city hosts the NATO summit, May 20 and 21. While Chicago
Mayor Rahm Emanuel views the summit as raising Chicago’s profile, Occupy
thinks the event will call attention to their concerns and invigorate the Occupy Wall Street movement that started last fall.

Occupy Chicago says thousands of protesters will go to Chicago next
week before the city hosts the NATO summit, May 20 and 21. While Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel views the summit as raising Chicago’s
profile, Occupy thinks the event will call attention to their concerns
and invigorate the Occupy Wall Street movement that started last fall.

“The Occupy
movement is not dwindling – the Occupy movement is growing,” said
Rachael Perrota, at a press conference today at Occupy Chicago
headquarters, located in a warehouse in the Pilsen neighborhood. Perrota says that Occupy protesters will arrive in buses from across the country.

There
is no solid estimate on how many protesters will show up – Occupy Chicago
member Zoe Sigman estimated anywhere from 10,000 to 50,000 people – and how
they will affect a city that is already partly shutting down.

Protesters are concerned about an array of issues, with only a few planned events directly in protest of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization military alliance
of North American and European countries. While demonstrators are protesting against
national and international political issues, their immediate conflicts
might be with the city of Chicago regarding the legality of their
demonstrations.

Occupy Chicago plans ten straight “Days of
Action” that start this Saturday and end May 21. (A complete look at these
actions is on the Occupy Chicago web site).

These
include a “People’s Summit” scheduled for this weekend followed by actions all
week that focus on specific issues – education funding, immigrant
detention, foreclosures, and the environment. Friday, the National
Nurses United will hold a rally against growing economic inequality.

A
march to the McCormick Place convention center Sunday, where most of
the NATO summit will take place, will focus on NATO-related issues,
specifically the alliance’s involvement in Afghanistan.

Aaron
Hughes, of Iraq Veterans Against the War, called today for a full
military withdrawal of NATO from Afghanistan. Hughes said that Iraq veterans would
symbolically return their medals of honor during the Sunday protest, as a
signal of their opposition toward the Afghanistan War.

Protesters acknowledged
that some of the upcoming actions were planned in anticipation of the G8 economic
summit, which is happening simultaneous to NATO. President Barack Obama
announced in March the summit would relocate from Chicago to the Camp David
presidential retreat.

Perrotta of Occupy
Chicago asserts that the planned protests are directly relevant to NATO.
“While it might seem like a bunch of disparate issues, it all falls
under the heading, ‘Money for social services, not for war,’” Perrotta
says.

The substance of the protests might be overshadowed by how their actions affect Chicago’s downtown area.

Already, Lake Shore Drive, parts of Interstate 55 and many roads around McCormick Place will close for the summit. Three major museums will also close for three days, and some downtown businesses will shut down.

The main NATO protest Sunday, organized by the Coalition Against the NATO and G8 War and Poverty Agenda, received clearance from the city and U.S. Secret Service to march from the Petrillo band shell to McCormick Place.

The National Nurses United protest set for Friday is in limbo.
The city wants the rally at the Petrillo band shell instead of Daley Plaza,
and the nurses have until the end of today to accept the city’s terms
or, possibly, file a legal challenge.

The group’s attorney Harvey Grossman, of the Illinois ACLU, declined to comment on the situation this afternoon.

Meanwhile,
additional protests did not go through the permit process. “Occupy
Chicago believes that the first amendment is our permit,” Perrotta says.

Also, there are likely to be actions that do not fit neatly into the plans of the city or protest groups.

For
example, Sigman mentioned a plan to occupy Boeing’s downtown Chicago
corporate headquarters May 21. But it is not clear what an occupation
will mean, and if protesters will target additional corporations. “This
is all still being planned,” Sigman says.